


The Haze of Illusion

by Kae_the_Minish_Bandit



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Genre: Gen, Keaton Mask, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Mask of Truth - Freeform, Stone's Mask, deep questions, originally a live write, rating for bein kinda creepy, some characters turn to dust, the moon is hecking creepy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26841253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kae_the_Minish_Bandit/pseuds/Kae_the_Minish_Bandit
Summary: He can't be here. This should be impossible. Didn't he stop the power that was bringing it down? Then how is it here. He can't do this again. The moon should still be in the sky, and in Termina at that. But that still doesn't explain anything. And Time's not sure he wants to know.(Originally a Live Write on the LU discord server. I'm reposting it here in case anyone wants to read it.)
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Time & Twilight (Linked Universe)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 59





	The Haze of Illusion

Time is laying face-first in the grass. How he got there, he doesn't know. Where he is, he doesn't know.

Getting up, the world seems hazy. Details fade in and out, but the colors are sickeningly bright. A blue sky and the greenest grass he's seen in years.

_ Oh. Oh _ no.  _ This cannot be happening. He _ can't  _ be here. _

In the center of the field there is a tree. But it isn't the tree that bothers him. It's what's under the tree that is concerning. When Time was here before, there were nameless, faceless children in the masks of enemies he'd faced.

But here, now, they are not simply children. They are his comrades, his brothers. In masks, the masks Time knows hold malevolent spirits.

_ This cannot be real, _ Time reasons.  _ There is no way I could be here. _

But  _ oh _ it feels so real. And if it is a dream, surely realizing it would wake him from it. But no. It persists, whether real or not.

And so Time does the only thing he feels he can do. He walks up to one of the masked children, who is clearly Warriors. The Oldawa mask rests upon his face, obscuring his eyes. His eyes that shine brightly with mischief in any other situation.

"Your friends... What kind of... people are they?" The voice is Warrior's, but devoid of life. It feels vacant, more like a doll than the Warriors. Without the bravado that Warriors normally has, Warriors seems much younger, far too young to be the young war hero people know him as.

Time doesn't want to become attached to this version of Warriors. Even if it  _ is _ him physically, it clearly isn't the Warriors he knows. "My friends are good people, like you."

"I wonder... Do those people... think of you... as a friend?" This Warriors seems to model far too uncannily the captain Time met so many years ago. The captain concerned with how he was seen by his soldiers.

And Warriors is gone with a gust of the breeze, ash is all that remains.

Time walks up to the next masked Link. It is Ghot, but also Wild.

Wild, normally full of chaotic energy, the life of the group, is sitting still. It's concerning, but Time continues to tell himself that  _ this isn't Wild. _ No more than an illusion is, anyways.

"You...What makes you... happy?"

Wild seems lost. Empty. Without the bright bubbly thing that is Wild in him, he seems so small. So helpless.

"Being with you and Twilight and Warriors and Wind and all of you." It feels wrong talking to Wild like this.  _ It isn't Wild though. _

"I wonder... What makes you happy...Does it make... others happy, too?" As wrong as it seems, these words perfectly embody Wild. How selfless he is, how sparsely he indulges in his own interests outside of when people share them.

Time doesn't answer. He turns away before he has to watch Wild turn to dust too.

The child in the Gyorg mask is Wind. Time wants to laugh bitterly. Of course it is.

The sailor, the monstrous fish. Clearly there's a connection.

Yet he wonders if there will be yet another deeper meaning to the Mask. He can truly say he doesn't want to know. These insights into his companion's personalities are disturbing to say the least.

_ But do I truly have a choice? _ And so he continues on towards Wind.

"The right thing... What is it?"  _ Oh. _ Wind's moral compass. The one thing all the heroes he's met share.  _ If we truly are heroes, then why do we leave a trail of destruction in our wake? _

Time  _ can't _ get upset over this.

But he is.

Whatever brought him here is clearly intent on doing this to him, breaking him by showing him these things.

And Wind continues his lines, the lines spoken by the faceless children all those years ago. (How many has it been? Time doesn't keep track of those things anymore.)

The lines hit much harder when you know the person who's saying them.

"I wonder... If you do the right thing...Does it really make...everybody... happy?" Time doesn't even comprehend the fact that Wind is blown away from a gust of his namesake.

He is lost. How can this go on? But he can still see no other option, and so he continues on.

The child in the Twinmold mask reveals himself to be Four. Without the eerily mature eyes characteristic of Four, this alternate Four seems the most childlike here; the closest to resembling the original masked child.

It's a bit unsettling.

Time braces himself for what is probably the question that he thought most about after Termina.

"Your true face... What kind of... face is it?"  _ How does this apply to Four in any way? _ Time can't think of a time when Four had seemed unsure of who he was.

But that was the thing. The child was speaking of masks, of identities created to present to others. Even Time had a "mask" of his own he had put up within their group. Four was probably no different.

"I wonder...The face under the mask...Is that... your true face?" Four seems so uncertain. If this truly is an aspect of Four, then it's one that Time has never seen and hopes to never see again.

And Four, unlike all the other Links, doesn't get blown away into ashes.

He  _ shatters. _ With a crack, pieces of glass in every color fall to the ground. As they come to a rest, they jingle in a way reminiscent of wind chimes.

And Time lingers for a moment, watching the glass shards settle and begin to reflect the light that doesn't seem to have a source.

And he moves on once more.

Before he can reach the person in Majora's Mask, three more of the children come out from behind him. One is clearly Legend, another one Sky, and the final one Hyrule.

All of them wear masks, but not ones Time has fought. They wear masks that have much deeper meanings, masks that have aided Time. Legend in a Keaton Mask, Sky in a mask of truth, and Hyrule in the Stone's Mask.

Legend, without any of the snark he usually had, could be described as kind-looking. The Keaton mask softens the features it doesn't cover.

Time doesn't want to know why there are more people on the moon. He just wants this to be over. He suspects that he may not ever get out, but then again, if Majora kills him, then he'll be free.

Legend speaks. "Does fate exist? Do we get to choose what we do in life?"

Legend has always hated Hylia, Time can attest to that. But this? The idea that they may not get to choose their path? It makes him angry, but what can he do about it? If Legend doesn't have a choice, then what does he have?

"Or.... is all we know predetermined......and we are puppets merely carrying it out?"

And Legend is dust and ashes.

Sky steps forward, the mask of truth on his face. Blankness overwhelms his face. It is not the peaceful look he wears when he thinks of Zelda. It holds no thought, no slight grin or look of annoyance.

"We should tell the truth... Shouldn't we?"

Time has no idea how this is Sky. It's not like in Four's case, where the moment of realization comes after a few seconds. There probably was something Sky was withholding, but they all had secrets, right?

Could not telling them have made Sky guilt-ridden?

Time doesn't know.

"But is the truth…What people want to hear?" Sky doesn't even finish his line before he's gone. Like Four, he isn't ashes. He is a pile of daisies. The scent wafts up towards Time's nose.

Then Hyrule curls up. This is the most action Time has seen from his companions on the moon, so he is wary.  More wary than he already is anyway.

Hyrule's muttered words are hard to catch. "Do we really matter? There are so many...... so many people."

This didn't seem particularly earth-shaking to time. He knew Hyrule was hard on himself, not believing he was a true hero among other things.

Yet....

It was a fair question to ask.

Does each person really matter in the grand scheme of things? Of all the people out there, there was bound to be some overlap between people.

"Are we expendable as individuals for the safety of all?"

And Hyrule, like all of the other Links, was gone in the blink of an eye. Dissolved into ashes and blown away in the passing wind.With a heavy heart, Time went to see the last child. He had a feeling that he knew who it would be, and he dreaded it greatly. Approaching the final Masked person, his suspicions were confirmed. It was Twilight.

"Am I... the good guy or the bad guy? What are we? What.... is good.... and what.... would be bad?"

Looking at Twilight, all that Time could see was someone who was a son to him.

But Time could see how blurred the lines of good and bad where for all heroes. And while he stood contemplating these final words, the mask lashed out with whips of darkness.

And Time was falling, clocks surrounding him as he relived his life over and over. It was five seconds, a year, and a decade all at once.

And Time woke up screaming.

**Author's Note:**

> As one of the people on discord said about this, "it felt like a fever dream."
> 
> I think Time was overthinking the whole thing.
> 
> This idea was based off of an idea I had last night, and I thought, "Hey, that would make a really good source of Time angst!"
> 
> I know that the Majora's Mask moon child quote was wrong, that's because it didn't fit the story!
> 
> Feel free to come yell at me on Discord at four is the best#2118


End file.
